Weird
by FLUFF-N-UTTER-1
Summary: Abby and Connor in the cretaceous. Talking, sorting themselves, dinosaurs, the earliest mammals, housekeeping, a journey, a couple scares, & more dinosaurs. It's all a matter of timing really. (3.11) A/N last chapter enters into season 4.1
1. Six Days

3.11 – Weird

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_

They had been in the cretaceous for six days now.

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_

On the morning of the second day, Abby awoke cradled in Connor's arms.

In the aerie, she opened her eyes to see tree branches, leaves and a bright blue sky. She was leaning against his chest, his arms wrapped around her tightly. The smile in his face, shining in his eyes, as he said morning suddenly left Abby feeling uncomfortable. She quickly wriggled loose of his embrace. As his smile faltered, then disappeared from his face, she wondered if she should she have told him about the nightmare the previous night that left her trembling. That lame excuse she had made about it being chilly and her comment that maybe we should huddle together for warmth sounded far too suggestive in the bright light of day. But, Abby didn't say a word.

They managed to get safely down from the huge old tree without any incidents, then began to track Danny's trail. Sometime later, the trail just seemed to vanish. Connor said Danny must have gone through an anomaly after Helen. Abby didn't say anything, but she hoped so. Otherwise Danny had been plucked off the earth in midstep. Abby knew there were creatures here big enough, fast enough, to take a person all in one bite. She just hoped that Connor was right and Danny had made it safely through the anomaly.

With no trail to follow, they decided to search for water and food. Finding water was easy, there was a river full of the stuff. Finding food was not so easy. They shared an embarrassed chuckle as they inventoried the contents of the backpacks. A half dozen awful energy bars, a few tins of beans, an assortment of tools and weapons, hundreds of condoms. Not much to survive on.

As the afternoon began to wane, they decided to settle into a secluded space between the base of three huge conifers and the wall of a cliff. Abby hadn't heard Connor say a word about his ankle, nor any of his other hurts, all day. His silence was beginning to worry her.

The flint in the backpacks Becker had provided made it almost easy for Connor to start a fire. Abby gathered wood and pinecones. Connor had situated the fire on the side of their camp not sheltered by trees and rocks, in the hope that flames would keep away creatures. Watching the flames flicker, while roasting pinecones and trying to dig out the pine nuts to eat was almost like watching telly and eating popcorn. Or at least that's what they told each other.

That night, they had decided to take turns keeping watch, one awake while the other slept. Abby insisted on taking the first watch. Privately she wasn't sure he had slept any the night before. When she could stay awake no longer, she woke Connor to take his turn at watch. Abby lay down on the thin silvery wrapper she called a blanket and shut her eyes. Moments later, or so it seemed, she awoke crying his name. He was there, beside her, holding her close worriedly asking her what was wrong. Abby couldn't bring herself to tell him about the nightmare of him falling again. So, Abby snapped at him, reminding him, we're stuck in the cretaceous Connor. That's what's wrong! The hurt look in his eyes made her feel ashamed. He was apologizing then, for things that could never have been his fault. Abby shushed him, then leaned her head on his chest; let him hold her as he had the night before. Listening to the steady beat of his heart, she was soon asleep.

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_

On the morning of the third day, Abby awoke alone on the hard dirt of their encampment.

She called his name anxiously as she quickly sat up. The silvery blanket rustled beneath her as she moved, turned, looked around.

Connor responded reassuringly. He was sitting at the fire, stirring something in the collapsible camp pot. He mumbled words about making a proper breakfast, then he handed her an energy bar covered with heated beans. She took the offering carefully, hoped the beans would make the energy bar taste better… or if not better, at least less awful. She asked him what he was doing, after all hadn't they agreed to ration their supplies.

He had replied excitedly, telling her about his new idea. He was going to make something, they could find a way home, he just needed a can. A few hours later, the world's first anomaly detection device was hanging from a nearby tree branch.

Low tech, a can, keys and string, but Connor was sure it would work.

That night, Abby took first watch again. She didn't sleep at all that night.

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_

On the morning of the fourth day, Abby and Connor were both awake.

They were crouched closely together, holding sharpened sticks, watching fearfully as the moon and the stars faded in the dawn light. Something in the darkness had been howling during the night. Connor had awoken, he joined Abby on watch.

With the morning light creeping across the ground, the horrible sounds faded. Abby felt Connor's body shift beside her, he arose from his position and moved towards the fire. Picking up a branch he added it carefully to the fire. Looking at her with concern, Connor suggested she should have a lie in. Abby had commented about needing a pillow, the ground was hard. He returned to sit beside her. Gently pulling her shoulders down, he rested her head on his lap. She smiled as she blinked once or twice, then she fell into a restful sleep.

In the afternoon, the pair went back to the river. They were going to try spear fishing, maybe, if they were lucky, they would have a decent dinner tonight.

That night, Abby took first watch yet again. Her taking the first watch of the evening was getting to be a pattern. Her first full belly in days had left her sated and made her tired, so she woke Connor a little earlier than normal for his watch.

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_

On the morning of the fifth day, she woke with Connor at her side.

Connor had fallen asleep sometime during the long lonely night. He was sprawled beside her, his arms wrapped loosely around her. She watched his face for a moment feeling warm and contented. Then she heard the chirp.

Abby quickly elbowed herself free of Connor's arms, and rolled to a crouching position. Her back to Connor, the stone cliff to her left, conifers to the right, she was prepared to take on whatever made that noise.

The tiny creature before her quivered with fear. Its short whiskers twitched, and then it scampered off into the forest. Abby started to give a sigh of relief, but then she heard Connor groaning. Turning to face him, she saw that he was doubled up, arms across his midsection. His arms were across the place she had elbowed him. She'd hurt him.

She knelt down beside him, and with much coaxing finally got his jacket and shirt off of him. His abdomen looked pretty good she thought, but his side and back where he had landed in the fall were bruised and tender. She ripped the sleeves out of his jacket and cut them into narrow strips with their only knife. Then she used them to wrap his ribs. Internally, Abby berated herself for not having checked him out sooner, while every word she spoke was to fuss at Connor for not telling her how much pain he'd been in.

As she knelt down beside him tightening his wrappings she jarred his leg. He hissed in pain. She bit her lower lip, regretting that she had hurt him yet again. Thinking of his ribs, and bruised back, she wondered what his ankle looked like.

She suggested that he take his boots off, so she could check his ankle. Connor had objected, worried that if he took his boot off, he might not be able to get it on again. Abby had blinked in surprise at his words, wondering just how bad his ankle was. She then insisted he get his boots off. When he finally removed the boot, she gasped at what she saw. The ankle looked awful. It was far worse than his ribs and back. Violet and chartreuse bruising discolored the skin. With the boot no longer holding the ankle in place, the flesh swelled. Abby had insisted on seeing his legs next.

The bruises on his legs were not quite as bad, but the cuts and scrapes worried her. Connor seemed a little embarrassed to be sitting around in just his boxers, but she told him the cuts and scrapes on his legs would heal better in fresh air. She joked that it reminded her of when he first moved in to her flat to see him in his boxers again. The small smile Connor gave in response to her jest didn't quite reach his eyes.

Abby dug through every pocket in both backpacks. Then she went through the pockets in their clothes. An odd assortment of pens, coins, a flash drive from Connor, lip gloss from her, and finally she found a stray packet of Midol. She held the medication out towards Connor. He flushed and said he didn't need it. Abby at first didn't understand his reaction, but then she realized what was bothering him and hurriedly began trying to explain; telling him Midol was just painkiller. He looked miserable, but he kept refusing to take the pills. He kept saying that he'd managed this long without meds and stating that his ankle was better now than when he first fell out of the tree. She wished she had other painkillers and some disinfectant. If Abby ever saw Becker again, she was definitely going to tell him a thing or two about how to pack a survival backpack. An emergency medical kit ought to be the first thing inside.

That night, Abby took first watch once again. She had Connor's head on her lap, her fingers lightly stroking his forehead. She planned to stay up all night, make sure he had a good night's sleep.

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_

On the morning of the sixth day, Abby woke to find herself in Connor's embrace again.

She was cuddled with her back against Connor, his arm thrown across her body. Somehow, she had fallen asleep and wound up in this position. She smiled, as she wriggled back against Connor's warm body. She froze as she realized what part of his anatomy she was rubbing against.

But it was too late, she had woken him. Connor rolled away from her quickly with a groan.

"Are you alright," she asked him anxiously. He was curled up, facing away from her in a fetal position. She could see his skin flushing with embarrassment. He didn't say anything.

"Connor, are you all right," Abby repeated worriedly.

He mumbled in a choked voice, "Sorry."

"What are you sorry for?"

"You said you didn't want anything weird between us…"

"Connor," she whispered gently as she leaned towards him, reaching a hand out to stroke his shoulder "we're stuck in the cretaceous, years from home; nothing is ever going to be weirder."


	2. A Night

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

3.11 – Weird

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_

That night, Abby didn't take the first watch. Abby was holding Connor tightly, as his body trembled and he cried out her name.

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_


	3. Together?

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me; this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_

On the morning of the seventh day, Abby woke first, finding herself secure in Connor's embrace.

Her head was resting on Connor's chest, she could hear his heart beat, feel every breath he took. She slowly sat up, trying not to jostle him. After last night, he needed his rest she thought.

Abby smiled as she remembered; they had talked all day yesterday, really talked finally. They had talked about family and friends, school and work, and finally they had talked about their feelings, with no interruptions. While she had never thought that the young man who blustered his way into her flat was shy, she had thought he was inexperienced with women. She didn't think that any more. Yesterday she finally realized that he had been hurt, and like her, was just trying to protect himself. Fear of rejection, they both had it.

The main difference was in how they handled the fear. Abby was an expert on guarding her emotions. She trusted very few people in her life. She refused to let anyone close enough to hurt her. Connor reacted differently. He was by nature a trusting soul. And a people pleaser too, which left him vulnerable to being used by others. Connor was an open book; everyone saw his emotions, especially when he was trying not to let someone know they had hurt him.

Abby put another log on the fire, it briefly flamed higher, crackling and snapping. She moved over to where she had left the supplies. Opening the outside pocket of her jacket, she placed her cell phone and the book Sarah had given her next to the pile of equipment beside Connor's backpack.

"Where did you get that?" asked Connor.

Abby turned to look at him, startled, thinking he had been still asleep. "What?"

"The book," Connor continued as he sat up drawing the blanket around him. "Last time I saw that book, Sarah had it."

"Oh, yeah," Abby remembered "in the car, after we left Johnson's headquarters… going back to the racetrack, she was showing me some of the writings… when we got out, I just stuck it in my coat pocket... didn't want to leave it on the seat. You were in the other car… with Danny."

Their eyes met at the mention of their friend. Both hoped he had made it safely through the next anomaly, both hoped that he had stopped the mad woman from destroying humanity.

"That's Helen's book," said Connor suspiciously, looking at it as if it were a snake. "It might have some information in it we could use to get home."

He moved as if to arise from their sleeping area.

"Sit still, Connor," Abby said quickly as she picked up the book and moved across their tiny camp towards him. "You need to keep that ankle elevated. Just rest today, yeah."

He accepted the book she handed him, but was shaking his head. "Can't just sit still all day Abby," he replied shaking his head, looking embarrassed again, "things to do you know."

She suddenly understood. A smirk crossed her face as she responded, "Well, get your clothes on then, I'll help you get down to the loo."

"I can manage meself," Connor said indignantly. Abby could tell that the mention of the gnarled old tree stump downstream from the fishing hole that they had christened "The Loo" had embarrassed him. They had both agreed that the swirling waters beneath the exposed roots would safely carry away anything that might attract creatures.

"Connor," Abby replied looking at his ankle "you're not going to be able to get your boot on, so we're going to have to do this together. You'll have to lean on me."

Yeah, together they could handle anything.

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_

It was harder walking with Connor leaning on her this time. Before he had used the stick to lean on and had his boot supporting the ankle. Without the boot, he couldn't put weight on his foot at all, so he leaned on Abby more. After attending to necessary morning functions, they followed the river bank upstream. Since their first success at spear fishing, they had not been able to return to the fishing hole due to creatures roaming in the area, so they approached cautiously.

Abby smiled as they reached the rocky pool. There were no creatures anywhere to be seen.

"Connor," she suggested "why don't you just sit and soak your ankle in the cool water. I'll take a try at spear fishing today."

He looked at her, standing there with the waterfall in the background. Gorgeous. He nodded in agreement, and sat, watching, waiting.

After about an hour of no success, Abby was ready to call it quits. She decided that spear fishing just wasn't one of her talents.

"Conn," she called "why don't we go back to the camp, yeah. We could have an energy bar or some beans."

He looked appalled at the mention of the energy bars, "Beans," he said firmly.

As Abby helped him up from the water's edge, she looked at his ankle again. It looked a little less swollen now, or at least she hoped so.

"How's it feeling," she asked him.

"Better," he said giving her a small smile. "Don't think it's broken really, feels more like the sprain I had when I was doing the Duke of Edinburgh…"

"So you can tell the difference between a sprain and a break," Abby interrupted incredulously.

"One hurts a heck of a lot more," he started to respond.

"So tell me, when did you break your ankle?" Abby asked.

"Got hit by a van, when I was a teenager," Connor said as they made their way slowly back to the camp, "broke both me legs, broke the ankle on this leg too."

Abby winced at his words. "Is that why you have the scars on your thigh," she asked.

"Yeah," he said shortly.

Abby looked up at his face, the expression guarded, pain evident in his eyes. She didn't think the pain was from his ankle, or at least not all of it. Maybe, thought Abby, Connor knew how to guard his emotions too.

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_

They had eaten the last of the beans and they were still hungry. The energy bars were even starting to look appetizing now, but they had agreed to save them until tomorrow. Abby had got Connor to sit with his foot elevated, he was even sitting still while he was reading Helen's book.

"Connor," she asked "what do you know about the plants growing now?"

He looked up at her, "Well flowering plants are starting now, and…"

"Edible plants," Abby encouraged.

"Oh," he said, realizing what she was asking. "There should be some roots and bulbs, pine nuts which we know about, other nuts too if we can only find them…"

Abby was nodding her head, wondering how to find these plants. It wasn't going to be like going to the grocer's where things were labeled.

She snapped back to attention at Connor's next words, "Of course, you could follow him," he said pointing at the little whiskered creature that had frightened her the other morning, "anything that little fellow can eat is probably safe for us to eat too."

"Right," she said to Connor as she moved into a crouch, "I'll just follow him then…"

As she moved after the tiny creature, she heard Connor protesting, "I thought we agreed we were supposed to stay to together."


	4. Love?

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me; this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Abby returned to the campsite carrying a handful of roots, bulbs or maybe tubers… she wasn't really sure which they were, but the whiskered creature had been happily munching them until she interrupted it.

"Connor," she exclaimed. He wasn't there.

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Abby followed the trail Connor had left. It wasn't difficult; he was leaning heavily on the stick, dragging his injured leg. The stick left a deep impression in the forest floor. She soon found herself back at the fishing hole. Connor was sitting with his feet in the water, staring intently, holding the sharpened end of the stick ready.

"Ssh," Abby heard him whisper. She blinked at his words; here she thought she had been being quiet.

A sudden motion, and Connor was stabbing the spear into the water between his feet. He pulled his feet out of the water and spun around grinning proudly, holding a fish up for her to see.

"Dinner," he said.

Looking at the very toothy mouth of the fish, and then back to the water and Connor's dripping feet, she asked "Were you using your feet as bait?"

"I've been told I'm tasty," he replied with a grin.

Abby frowned as she remembered how Danny had used Connor for bait when trying to trap terror birds. "Come on now," she said "let's get back to camp before it gets dark."

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Upon their return to the campsite, Connor inspected the plants Abby had brought back. Bulbs, he pronounced them, possibly an early member of the onion family, or maybe not. They looked at each other.

"Well," Connor said "if they're edible and go with fish, good. If they're poisonous, then we won't have to worry about eating the energy bar tomorrow."

"Sounds like a win-win situation," Abby agreed grimly.

They cooked the fish and the whatever it was bulb.

_-x-x-x-x-x-x_

Something was moving in the forest. They could hear the heavy lumbering footsteps as they finished their dinner.

"Well," Connor said "with a walk like that, at least we know it's not a raptor."

"Yeah," Abby replied worriedly, "but whatever that is could probably kill us just by stepping on us." She looked at him, looked at the stone cliff and conifers beside him. Their little corner of the world was just this small triangle of land, and they were kidding themselves if they thought it was safe. Abby put an extra stick on the fire. It blazed higher for a moment before settling back down.

"I'll take first watch," she continued "you get some sleep tonight, yeah."

The smile on Connor's face dropped for a moment, then reappeared. He moved closer to her, bringing an arm around her shoulder.

"Thought maybe we should watch together, yeah?"

"Connor," Abby replied sharply "you need some sleep."

His hand had been caressing her, sliding down from her shoulder and across her biceps. At her words, his hand stopped moving. His fingers hovered lightly on her forearm.

"Yeah," he said disappointedly "guess you're right." Then suddenly his hand was under her chin, tilting her head up, his lips meeting hers. He took her breath away. Then, just as suddenly, Connor released her, murmuring "I love you," as he started to move away from her and the fire, to return to the sleeping area.

"You don't have to say that," said Abby. He had said those words several times yesterday and last night. In her experience, men didn't really mean those words.

"What?" Connor looked at her in confusion.

"What you just said," she answered "it's not necessary."

Connor looked at her in a strange way. She couldn't quite place the expression on his face. Abby was wondering what he was thinking, when he replied.

"I love you," he said softly "and I think it is very necessary to say that."

"And did you tell Caroline that?" The words were out of Abby's mouth before she even thought them. She didn't really mean to say that, now did she?

He stared at her for a moment, before speaking. "I never told Caroline that I loved her," Connor replied firmly.

His eyes were gazing into hers as if searching for some sort of answer to a question that Abby hadn't even heard. He held the gaze for a moment, then when Abby gave no response, sighed a little and resumed his return to the sleeping area. As he passed the little pile of supplies, he stopped and looked at it in confusion. Turning back to face her, he asked "Abby, where's my cell phone and the anomaly opening device?"


	5. Another Night

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Abby," repeated Connor questioningly.

"What?" she asked as she shook her head to clear her thoughts. Connor's response to her question about Caroline had surprised her.

"I asked," began Connor "if you knew where my cell phone and the anomaly opening device were?"

Shaking her head from left to right, Abby answered, "The last time I saw the anomaly opening device was when we were in that first tree with Danny. And I don't remember seeing your cell phone since we left home."

"Well then," began Connor "we'll have to…"

Another lumbering step sounded. It was closer than the previous steps, and drowned out the remainder of his words.

Abby looked across the fire at Connor, "What is it?" she whispered.

"Don't know… can't see it," he replied quietly. "Could be any of several different creatures…"

Something large swung through the air high above them, hitting the farthest outer conifer. A cracking noise echoed through the night air, and pine cones rained down on their tiny camp. Abby looked at Connor, her blue eyes wide. He returned her gaze, as the steps continued on, slowly stomping past their camp.

"Something with a very big tail," Connor continued jokingly. They both sat quietly as the sound of footsteps gradually faded as the creature distanced itself from them. Abby watched as Connor started stacking the pinecones beside their supplies.

"Connor," she began "what you were saying before…"

"Yeah," he responded turning his face towards her. "Tomorrow, we'll need to go back and look for my cell phone and the anomaly opening device."

"No," Abby shook her head, "before that, about Caroline."

"What about Caroline?"

"All that time you two were dating… and you never told her you loved her?"

Connor placed the last pinecone atop the pile. Then turning to face her, he replied slowly "Abby… I already told you that… did you not believe me?" His brown eyes were gazing intently at her with a hurt look.

"Connor," she responded "I'm just trying to understand… most men talk about love when they want…" her words trailed off at Connor's shocked expression.

"This isn't about Caroline, at all," he asked, "is it?"

"No, Connor…" Abby began.

"Is that what you thought?" he interrupted "Yesterday, when I told you that?"

"No, Connor…" Abby started again, wondering how on earth to set this right.

"Abby," he interrupted again "did last night mean anything to you?"

"Connor," she began, but he cut her words short.

"No Abby," he interrupted "You're right. I am tired. I'm going to sleep, wake me when it's time for my watch."

Abby watched as Connor rolled over on his side, back to the fire, back to her. Her eyes filled with tears and her chin quivered. Why did Connor react like this she asked herself?

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Abby spent the next several hours on watch, watching Connor and thinking about his words. It was a good thing the large lumbering creature had scared most other creatures from the nearby area, because she probably wouldn't have noticed anything trying to enter the camp.

She had watched as Connor fidgeted and finally fell asleep, curled up tightly into a ball. His back remained turned toward her the entire time. And she thought about the many things they had talked about yesterday. Connor had finally talked about his feelings. Abby wondered, did he really mean it when he said those words this time? Or was he going to forget he said it again? She had told him some of her feelings, but not all. Maybe, she needed to tell him more. Or show him.

She moved over to the pile of supplies and picked up her tube of lip gloss. After applying the lip gloss, she reached into one of the backpacks to retrieve a small foil wrapped packet.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Abby bent over Connor's sleeping body, looking at his face, searching. A weeks worth of stubble growing on his chin made him look a little older, but it was the lines showing at the corners of his eyes and the circles underneath them that worried her. The signs of pain and tiredness hadn't been there a week ago; they hadn't been there even a few hours ago. She leaned down, closer, took a deep breath and pressed her lips against his.

He was kissing her back, lips parted to accept the thrust of her tongue, one hand reaching behind her head drawing her closer, the other caressing her back, when he froze. Connor's hands moved to her shoulders in an instant pushing her back from him as his eyes opened.

"What," he said in confusion.

Abby looked at him with a small smile. His eyes had lost some of that hurt look, and his lips were shiny where she had kissed him. "Connor," she said "lick your lips."

Without removing his hands from her shoulders, he did as he was told.

"Mmmm," he said "cherry, like the pie I get at the diner on Sundays."

Abby nodded.

"It's my favorite," he continued.

"I know," Abby replied. The Sunday trips to the nearby diner for cappuccino and desert had been almost as much a routine as movie night. Connor always got the cherry pie, while Abby had tried something different every time.

"But, but…" Connor said in confusion "you don't like cherry pie."

Abby nodded, "Right again," she said. Leaning in towards him, she whispered, "I've been wearing cherry lip gloss ever since the race track anomaly." She leaned in even closer, meeting his lips again.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Afterwards, Abby leaned her head against Connor's chest. She could hear his heart beating rapidly. She sighed contentedly.

"Abby," asked Connor quietly, "why is it that you don't want to hear me say I love you?"

She stiffened at his question. Really, she thought, are we back to that again. She had only ever told her friend Edie, should she tell Connor too? Abby snuggled in closer to Connor's warmth.

"Your turn for watch," she mumbled tiredly.

"Yeah, right," he replied starting to get up.

"No, stay," Abby protested as he moved away, "you keep the nightmares away." She blinked her eyes once, catching a sight of Connor's grin. It lit up his whole face. He pulled her body closer and kissed her forehead as she blinked again and fell asleep.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x


	6. Meaning

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Abby awoke to bright sunshine, which was surprising since the three conifers had kept the sleeping area of their camp in darkness for the past week. She squinted to look across the campsite to see Connor struggling with the strips from his jacket. He had taken them off his ribs and appeared to be trying to wrap his ankle. Beads of sweat ran across his forehead and he was biting his lower lip.

"Connor," said Abby as she stretched and moved into a sitting position. "Whatcha doing? Why did you take the wraps off your ribs?"

He stopped trying to wrap his ankle and turned to face her. "Morning Abby," he replied "we're going to need to move camp, and to do that I'm gonna need to get me boots on. Thought it might be better to wrap me ankle rather than me ribs."

"But… why?"

Connor looked at Abby, then he raised his eyes upward. Abby followed his gaze. Two of the conifers that had sheltered them were sheared off at about ten meters above ground. The tops of the once tall trees dangled precariously in the branches above them.

"The cracking noise last night," Abby whispered, "if they had fallen all the way…"

"Yeah," replied Connor "but that's not the worst of it..."

"What?"

"You can't see it from our sleeping area," he answered. "Come here."

Abby moved slowly across the camp to where Connor was sitting. She gasped at the sight that met her eyes. The once thick forest looked like it had been flattened by some sort of gigantic garden mower. A swath of broken and flattened trees at least fifteen meters wide or more was now in front of her, making their hidden campsite quite exposed.

"What on earth was it?" Abby asked as she knelt down in front of Connor, taking the wraps from his hands.

"Don't really know," Connor replied shortly "might have been one of the titanosaurs… maybe Argentinosaurus… or…" He hissed with pain as Abby pulled the wraps tight.

"Sorry," she said as she picked up his boot and began loosening the laces.

"Abby," Connor began "I meant it you know…"

She looked up at him in surprise, was he really talking about that again? "Really," she asked rolling her eyes, "like that time with the mer creatures?" She shoved the boot upwards as he pressed his foot down into the opening.

"Argh!" Connor cried out. "Have a care Abby," he said looking at her warily. "And yes," he continued "I meant it then too."

"Forgot it quickly enough too," she replied as she started tightening the laces on his boot. His body jerked as she pulled tightly.

Through clenched teeth, Connor replied, "Didn't… forget it… just thought… you didn't want to hear it."

Abby stopped pulling on the laces and looked up at him. "Didn't," she replied shortly "not when you were dating Caroline."

"But, but…" Connor spluttered.

Abby continued to stare at him. "Connor," she interrupted "my first boyfriend told me those words every day, until I believed him, until…" She swallowed, "I loved him, and then found out he said those words to just about every woman he met. Those words didn't mean anything."

The stillness between them was broken by Connor.

"Abby, those words are important," he began, "I'm sorry that man you loved once didn't appreciate you." He stopped speaking and shook his head with a rueful grin. "Sounds like I'm channeling me Mum," he continued.

Abby was staring at Connor with a hard gleam in her eye. What on earth was he going on about his mum for she wondered. It didn't matter, she thought, she wasn't going to have his pity.

"Connor, how could you be in love with me and date Caroline?"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Connor swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing as his jaw clenched tight. "There's only so much rejection a bloke can take!" Connor exclaimed miserably. "You… you… you tried teaching me pick up lines! I knew then… I never stood a chance with you."

Abby looked at his boot laces again and started tying them. She hadn't really thought about how he would interpret her actions.

"You were ready to jump in to bed with Stephen when he asked you out," Connor continued "but…"

She jerked her head up to stare witheringly at him. "And how would you know that?" she asked, although she had a pretty good idea. It seemed as if Stephen ran off at the mouth, with or without centipede venom.

Connor gaped at her. As Abby stood up, she continued "I told you… I fancied him for a bit, but I didn't really know him… when I found out about Alison… and later about his affair with Helen…" she swallowed. "Well, Stephen was one of my mistakes, nothing happened…"

"Yeah," interrupted Connor, "Well Caroline was one of my mistakes… when she came along with her song and dance, I fell for it." He shook his head at the memory. "She didn't care about me at all… not really."

Abby stared at him in amazement. For a genius, sometimes he could be so thick.

"Connor," she answered quietly, "Caroline cared… you don't really think that fight we had was all about Rex do you?"

He stared up at her wonderingly as she reached out her hand. "Come on," she continued "let's move camp, yeah."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

They packed up their meager supplies into the backpacks. Connor retrieved the anomaly detection device from the branch where it had been hanging. The keys clanked gently against the side of the can. Leaning on the staff he walked beside Abby as they made their way out of the campsite and into the open.

"We'll need to stay near Danny's anomaly site, and we need go back to the other tree and look for my cell phone and the anomaly opening device," Connor said.

Abby shook her head at his words. "Really Conn," she asked in exasperation "who are you going to call?"

"No," now Connor was shaking his head "I need to take them apart… see if I can fix the anomaly opening device, so we can go home."

"Hmmph," Abby snorted. Well, she thought if anyone could get them home, Connor would be the one to do it. She looked down at his ankle, watching his limping gait with a critical eye.

"Right now, let's get across the open space here and get away from that…" she pointed to a pulverized blob of something. Was it half stepped on or half chewed on? She didn't care to go closer and find out. A nauseating smell arose from it as the sun climbed higher in the sky.

"Yeah, we'll need to set up a new camp first," Connor agreed.

"We'll get a fire going and get you off that ankle, eat some pine nuts," she replied. "Then, maybe tomorrow…"

She held out a hand towards him. As he clasped his fingers around her, she smiled up at him.

"Together," she said "we'll go together.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x


	7. The Grocers, the chemist and laundry

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It took the better part of the day to find another place and to set up camp. An oblong circle of trees growing close together, some rocks to fill in the gaps between tree trunks, and they had a home of sorts. Connor started a campfire with the flint. It only took three tries this time.

They ate the last of the energy bars, and were roasting pinecones again when the sound of a little chirp was heard.

Connor grinned as he spied the little whiskered creature. "Abby," he called quietly, "your friend is back."

She smiled. "Good," she replied quietly "I was worried he had been stepped on last night." The two watched as the little creature sniffed inquisitively around their backpacks, before turning and retreating back the way it had come from.

"Connor," whispered Abby "keep your foot elevated now. I'll be back in a while."

"What?"

Abby grabbed a sharpened stick from their woodpile. Moving after the creature she answered Connor. "I'm going grocery shopping."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Abby returned to the camp before dark, feeling tired and with a headache starting. She had only found three small roots. It wasn't going to be much of a dinner she thought.

As she stepped closer to the camp, she heard a rattling noise. Connor's low tech anomaly detector she thought at first, but then she realized this was something different. It had a fork in the center of the can instead of house keys. She jumped as Connor appeared in front of her.

"Ahh," he said with a smile, "it worked."

"What?" she asked blankly.

"I used the rest of the cans from the beans…made more of the anomaly detectors, but longer, with more of the string…" he looked at her expectantly. When she just stared at him, he continued explaining. "Longer, so it acts as a trip wire… like what we put up around the safe house that time with Danny and Sarah."

"Oh," replied Abby tiredly, "so I just set off the alarm." She handed him the roots, "Connor," she asked, "you want to peel these and start them cooking?

Connor looked at her with concern. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yeah," Abby sighed "Just tired is all." She stretched out on the shiny metallic blanket, but couldn't get comfortable. She finally curled up on her side with her arms wrapped around her knees. It seemed like only minutes later that Connor was shaking her awake.

"Abby, Abby…" he called to her "dinner's ready."

She ate a couple bites of the bland root, and then rolled over to sleep again. Connor said he would take the first watch this night.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Abby awoke early the next morning to see dappled sunlight across their campsite. Connor had let her sleep through the entire night. She moved to stretch when a cramp hit her; she curled up tight into a ball and groaned.

"Abby," she heard him calling, felt his hands on her forehead. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong Connor," she sighed as she closed her eyes again.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The next time Abby woke up it was broad daylight. Bright streaks of sunlight were shining down through the branches into their camp. Connor was sitting across from her adding another stick to the fire. His chest was bare. His black jacket and red shirt were folded neatly beside him and Abby watched as he picked up his white undershirt and started sawing at it with their knife.

"Connor," she asked slowly "whatcha doing?"

He looked up at her words. A smile of relief crossed his face, "You're awake!"

"Yeah," she replied. It seemed obvious to her. She repeated her question, "What are you doing Connor?"

He flushed. "The chemist was all out of tampons," he joked, "thought that this might make some soft pads for you."

Oh, yeah. Abby felt the uncomfortable wet stickiness between her legs. She needed a hot shower and a heating pad and… most of all, she needed to go home. As the tears welled up in her blue eyes, Connor offered her the only comfort he could.

"Would you like a Midol?"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

After she had swallowed the Midol, Abby felt Connor still watching her. She narrowed her eyes to look at him.

"What," she asked.

"Abby," he said carefully "I know you don't feel like moving right now, but we really have to get you cleaned up." He laid the stack of cut up undershirt pieces on top of his red shirt. As he turned to reach for his staff, Abby noted the bruises on his back were finally starting to fade. He stood slowly, turned to face her and held out his hand.

She shook her head. "Later Conn," she replied.

"No Abby," he responded "the smoke from the fire can only camouflage the scent of blood so much, we really need to get you, your clothes and the blanket washed."

"Oh," said Abby as she finally understood. She started to sit up, "Yeah. I'll just pop on down to the loo..."

"No!" exclaimed Connor.

"What?"

"Not enough rocks there," Connor explained "best to go up closer to the waterfall. A lot of rocks there, there's nothing likely to come up out of the sand or mud."

Abby shivered in the sudden realization of what he meant.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

As they walked slowly towards the waterfall, Abby marveled at the silence. "I'm not hearing any creatures," she commented.

"Probably still hiding," replied Connor.

"From the… what did you call it… titanosaur?" Abby asked incredulously. "That was two nights ago."

He shook his head, "No, from what came through last night." He shivered and then continued, "Don't know how you slept through it. Something is following the big guy, and it's a carnivore… not too picky about what it eats either. That blob we were worried about smelling up the place… it's gone."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Connor was walking better today than he had been she noticed. They reached the waterfall quickly. Splashing in a small shallow pool of cold water was invigorating and Abby started to feel better. Connor was rinsing out her blanket and clothes. They were soon hanging to dry on nearby branches as she finished washing herself. She strategically placed pieces of his undershirt and tied them with string. Sort of like a string bikini she thought. As she pulled Connor's red shirt over her head a question crossed her mind.

"Connor," she asked "how did you know I needed the Midol and pads?"

"Lived with women nearly all me life… first Mum and me little sister, then…" he hesitated a moment before continuing "lived with you for nearly three years now… know how you get."

Abby started rolling up the sleeves of his shirt. It hung loosely on her small frame, and was longer than some of the dresses she had in her closet back home she thought. She looked at him.

"I'm still surprised to find out that you have a little sister," she said.

"Well how do you think I felt, when I met your brother for the first time?" he asked with a smile.

Abby tilted her head slightly as she looked at Connor. Hmmm, she wondered, how did he feel then? True, they had lived together for nearly three years, but there was still so much they didn't know about each other.

She watched as he scratched his whiskered chin. The dark circles under his eyes made her feel guilty. Here she had slept all night and he was doing the laundry. Her laundry. The bush behind him quivered slightly. She released the breath she had been holding as she realized the source of the disturbance. Their little whiskered neighbor was happily nibbling on the lower leaves of the bush. She moved towards Connor and the creature scampered off in alarm. Picking some of the leaves, she looked at them carefully. Maybe, they just might do she decided.

"Connor," she said "let's go back to camp. We'll see if this makes a cuppa herbal tea. Then, I'll trim your whiskers and after that, you need a lie in."

"But, but, we need," he began protesting "to go find my cell phone and the anomaly opening device."

"Tomorrow Connor."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x


	8. Mr Whiskers

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The leaves had made a somewhat bitter tea, not something they would normally choose to drink, but the hot drink was soothing thought Abby as she watched Connor sleeping. He was sprawled across the one dry blanket in nothing but his boxers. One arm stretched out overhead, his mouth slightly open. She thought he might even be snoring a little. By the time they had reached camp after their laundry expedition, he had been exhausted. His limp had started becoming more pronounced as he grew more tired.

Abby remembered their conversation from… was it two days ago, or three? She shook her head in frustration. They had been here over a week already, and the days were running into each other. She remember Connor telling her that he thought the ankle was merely sprained, not broken, but looking at the puffy swollen ankle she had her doubts. The bruising on his back was finally starting to fade, but the ankle was still as livid as when she first looked at it. Tonight, she determined, Connor was going to get a good nights sleep. And tomorrow, she was going to see that he stayed off his ankle and kept it elevated. Finding Connor's cell phone and the old powerless anomaly opening device would just have to wait.

As the clouds started to roll overhead, shadowing their new home, Abby reached into the closest backpack for an energy bar. When she didn't find one, she searched the other backpack. Then, she sat back on her heels in dismay. They had eaten the last of the energy bars yesterday she remembered, and the last of the beans the day before that. Neither of them had done any fishing, hunting or gathering at all today she realized. In the approaching darkness, she reached for another cup of the herbal tea. It was going to be a long night.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Connor had rolled over as the first light of morning hit his eyes. She smiled as he opened his eyes.

"What," he said in realization "morning already? You were supposed to wake me up for a turn at watch last night!"

"Thought you needed your rest," Abby replied. She handed him a cup of the herbal tea and smirked at the grimace he made as he sipped it. She was dressed in her own clothes again. She pointed out his red shirt hanging on the tree branch beside him.

"Our little friend is back," she continued with a gesture in the direction of the small whiskered mammal. "What do you suppose he is?"

"Dunno, for sure," answered Connor. "Mammals are just getting their start now and the fossil record is very sparse. Looks too little to be a didelphedon, might be a really big eomaia, or something else that died out entirely leaving no trace…"

Abby watched as the little creature turned and scampered off. Picking up the sharpened stick and one of the empty backpacks, she moved to follow it.

"Well, now that you're awake, you can tend the fire whilst I follow Mr. Whiskers and find something for us to eat."

Connor pulled his head through the shirt and looked up at her in surprise. "You've named it?"

"Yeah," Abby replied as she stepped forward.

"Wait, I'm coming with you," Connor called after her.

Abby stopped and turned her head to glare at him fiercely. "You are not!" she exclaimed, "You need to stay off that ankle. Keep it elevated, yeah. Let it have a chance to heal."

He was shaking his head. "Thought we were supposed to stay together," he reminded her.

"We are together," Abby replied shortly moving forward again "but we're not joined at the hip."

"You can't keep him you know," Connor called after her "we can't take Mr. Whiskers home with us."

Abby smiled at his words. He still thought they were going home.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

When Abby returned to their camp sometime later, she saw Connor sitting with his foot elevated on a log reading Helen's book. She looked around. The camp looked a little different from when she had left it earlier. She narrowed her eyes as she stepped quietly forward.

"Connor," she called out. He jerked his head up, dropping the book, obviously startled.

"If I had been a creature," she continued as she stepped forward again…

"Stop!"

Abby stopped moving, looking at Connor for an explanation. He was holding his hands out, palms turned down towards the ground as he twisted to face her.

"Remember the trip wire?" he asked. She nodded. "You've got to step over it."

She looked down at the trip wire, her gaze following the line as it crossed the path and snaked up the side of one of the trees that marked the perimeter of their camp. Above the path was a rickety bundle of branches, some of them with quite sharp points.

"You've been busy," she commented as she stepped carefully over the string.

"Yeah," he said ruefully. "Couldn't go fishing, there are raptors up by the waterfall."

Abby nodded. She had seen them out on her wandering. She sat down next to Connor and opened her backpack. She laid out the meager offering: a couple of the maybe onions, another of the bland roots and one new root with a slight tinge of orange to it, maybe an ancestor of carrots she hoped. There were also several handfuls of the leaves they were using for the herbal tea. They looked at each other. Abby broke the silence.

"Thought you were gonna rest and keep that foot elevated."

"Can't just sit around Abby," he began.

"How about you cook dinner," she interrupted tiredly "while I have a lie down?"

"Yeah," he replied picking up the knife and starting to peel one of the roots "I'll make a soup… make the veggies stretch a bit farther..."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It was another two weeks before they tried to return to that first tree to look for Connor's cell phone and the old anomaly opening device.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x


	9. A Journey Starts

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Abby had stalled Connor as long as she could.

After two weeks, the swelling on his ankle had gone down to the point where it was almost a normal sized ankle again. The bruises were slowly fading, but he still wrapped the ankle before putting on his boot and leaned on his staff when walking. Connor never said a word about it, but Abby could tell the ankle was still bothering him.

She returned from her early morning foray with Mr. Whiskers to find Connor packing his backpack for the journey. As the days had passed, Abby and Mr. Whiskers had reached an understanding. The little creature had been a very good teacher. Abby had watched the tiny mammal and learned. She now knew how to regularly find the maybe onions, maybe turnips and maybe carrots that formed the mainstay of their diet. The fish that Connor sometimes caught were more elusive and it was always a welcome treat to have fish stew.

"Connor," Abby asked in surprise, "you're taking that too?"

He was untying the metallic combination of cans and keys that he called the anomaly detector from a branch. Turning his head to look at her, he replied "Yeah Abby."

As he stuffed the contraption into his backpack he added, "This is all the supplies we've got and we have to keep…"

"I know," Abby interrupted rolling her eyes, remembering his dismay when she told him she had thrown the empty tube of cherry lip gloss away, "we've got to keep everything… reuse and recycle… but Connor… we're coming back here… surely we don't have to carry every little thing…"

"Abby," he replied "we don't want to come back and find something missing… like me glove."

Abby sighed. There he was going on about that missing glove of his again. A chirp came from the log behind Connor. Mr. Whiskers was sitting up on his hind legs looking as if he was scolding them for the disturbance they were making. Abby reached into her pocket for some pine nuts and held them out on her open palm. The small animal was quickly at her side, nibbling the treat from her hand.

Connor watched the scene as he folded their blankets ready to stuff them into the backpack. "You know," he said jokingly "I'd be jealous of the little gent, knowing how much you like whiskers, except I know that I've got the better beard."

Abby looked up at Connor, and smirked a little. He stepped closer and as he bent his face down to her upturned lips, she ran a hand up the side of his face and through his dark facial hair. She murmured "When we get back, you're getting another trim…"

Connor dropped the blankets.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It was quite some time later when they finally finished packing the backpacks and set out to retrace their path to the other anomaly site.

By late morning they reached the swath of broken and flattened trees left by the path of the titanosaur. Abby and Connor looked at each other. In the time they had been in the cretaceous, they had learned that open space was dangerous. In the grand scheme of things, they were two small creatures that were safest when hidden from carnivores.

"We can hug the forest edge for a while longer," Connor began. Then he pointed to a low rocky hill in the distance, "About there is where we'll need to turn. Right?"

Abby nodded in confirmation, and then looked at Connor with a puzzled expression. "Don't you remember the way?"

"Not exactly," he said sheepishly "me head was bothering me a lot those first few days."

Abby blinked at his words. "And you were going to tell me this… when?" she asked slowly.

"Just now told you," he replied.

"Connor," she hissed "do you even know how to get back to our camp?"

"Well yeah," he answered, sounding a little affronted. "Been living here almost a month now, of course I can find me way home." He pointed across the open area and to the left where an exposed cliff face was flanked by one large conifer and two broken conifers. "There's our first camp. Behind us, is the camp we just left."

Abby looked at him, narrowed her eyes and asked "Connor, where's the knife?"

He pulled it out of the outer pocket of his backpack and handed it to her, watching her quietly. She quickly notched the tree beside her and then stepped back into the woods to notch another.

"You go on ahead, Connor," she called back over her shoulder. "I'll just mark our path a bit and catch up with you later."

"I thought we were supposed to stay together," he called after her.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Abby caught back up with Connor fairly soon. She watched him trudging along the tree line. He was headed in the direction of the low hill, bracing himself with the staff and carefully stepping around roots, rocks and fallen branches. He was starting to limp again she noted. Abby notched the tree she was standing beside and moved further back into the woods.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Connor," Abby called as she stepped out from the tree line to stand in front of him.

"Augh!" He jumped. "Abby, you're gonna give me a heart attack."

"You're getting sloppy," she told him "What if I had been a raptor coming out from behind that tree…"

"But you weren't," he commented, "and a good thing too." He held up an object in his hand for her inspection. Abby smiled in recognition of the last stun grenade. She fell into step beside him as they continued on their journey.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It was time to step out into the open.

Connor and Abby looked at each other. There were no creatures visible either to the left or to the right in the open fifteen meter wide path that the titanosaur had stomped out. Broad afternoon sunlight shone down on the uneven terrain. New growth, plants sprouting valiantly up through the soil, trying to reforest the space, was already evident. Connor looked up into the bright blue sky.

"What," hissed Abby.

"Just checking," answered Connor, "don't want to step out in the open if there's a pterosaur flying around."

She shivered, she hadn't even thought of those creatures. They hadn't seen any the entire time they'd been in the cretaceous, yet, remembering their first night's resting place she had to admit they were very probably around… somewhere.

"I don't see anything," she replied. "Let's go, quickly now." Abby started running. She heard Connor's heavy steps behind her as she moved into the bright sunshine. She sprinted quickly to the other side of the cleared space, hugging a tree trunk as she turned to speak to Connor.

He wasn't there.

She looked back into the open space. Connor was about halfway across the trampled path, hobbling along as quickly as he could. That's when Abby realized, she hadn't seen Connor run since their first day in the cretaceous with Danny. He couldn't run yet.

"Connor," she called encouragingly "hurry up."

He looked up at her words, "I'm coming," he responded. Abby held her breath as she watched his uneven gait. As he finally staggered into the shade of the tree, she wrapped her arms around his waist. Whether she was hugging him or helping support him, she wasn't' sure, but she knew she needed to hold him.

"Connor," she asked, "why didn't you tell me you couldn't run yet? We could have stayed at the camp until you were better…"

"Can't wait Abby," he interrupted, "we need to find the broken anomaly opening device and my cell phone before a rain comes. We've been lucky so far, but this dry spell can't last forever."

Yeah thought Abby, they had been lucky so far.

"Let's get moving," Connor said, "The aerie should be right around the side of this hill, and from there, we should be able to see where we first came in."

"Right Connor," replied Abby as she notched the tree.

Together, they continued on their journey.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x


	10. Return to the Aerie

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Abby was walking slower now. The slight incline as they followed the side of the hill was hardly noticeable to her, but Connor was breathing heavily now. She kept her arm around Connor's waist and he was leaning on her again, much like their first day walking in the cretaceous.

"Connor," she asked "I thought Cutter said pterosaurs mainly ate small reptiles, do you really thing one would try to attack us?"

"Dunno," he replied "but after having been chased by one, I can say I would just as soon it didn't happen again."

Abby chuckled at his response. She would just as soon not ever have a creature chase after her.

"And besides," Connor continued "there's only so much you can tell, guess really, from the fossil record… there's still a lot of things we don't know about these creatures."

Remembering the centipede that bit Stephen, supposedly non-venomous, Abby nodded in agreement. They continued walking up the hill in a companionable silence. Abby relaxed a little, it was almost as if they were back home, walking in the Forest of Dean, no sounds of raptors, no sounds of anything really except the step of their feet.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Connor," she began again "earlier you said we've been here nearly a month now…"

"I said nearly…" Connor interjected "It's not a month until Friday."

"I've lost track of the days," Abby admitted. She looked up at him with a dazzling smile, willing him to continue. He looked down at her, an answering smile starting to spread across his face, but he was distracted, he stumbled on the uneven ground and almost brought them both down.

As they righted themselves, Abby decided to forego subtlety and just straight out ask Connor what she wanted to know. "Connor," she asked "if it's not a month until Friday, what day is today?"

He looked at her in surprise, "Sunday of course."

Abby rolled her eyes at his words, wondering to herself how he kept track of the days. "And there's been no sign of an anomaly," she prompted him.

"No," Connor agreed worriedly, "which is why I want to get the anomaly opening device…"

"It doesn't work," Abby exclaimed impatiently.

"But it did work before," responded Connor "and if I can jury rig the power from our cell phones, maybe it will work again..."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

As they came around the curve of the hill, they stopped abruptly. Abby gasped in amazement. The massive tree that once stood so tall, holding the aerie safely above the reach of raptors was destroyed. The top half was completely gone, and the huge trunk shattered, split down the middle. Half still stood, a lonely spire pointing skyward, while the other half sprawled in chunks and splinters across the ground.

"What on earth," exclaimed Abby.

"The titanosaur," answered Connor looking at the devastated tree and the swath of open ground beyond "it's an eating machine…"

Abby shivered remembering the quiet forest. The last time she hadn't heard any sound of creatures, Connor had told her that a carnivore had been trailing after the titanosaur, frightening all the other creatures away.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

They decided to spend the night at the base of the tree. Standing isolated in the open swath of mowed forest, it still offered the best shelter around. It was getting late, and Abby could tell that Connor was tired. It took little to persuade him that crossing the open area would be best done tomorrow morning after a good rest.

There was quite a bit of regrowth showing amongst the trampled plants. The plants weren't as far along as the ones sprouting in the open space they had previously crossed, indicating the titanosaur had probably passed through this area more recently, but Connor assured Abby that the creature must be long gone by now.

"Connor," Abby asked "will you start a fire?" Then without waiting to hear his answer, she called "Be right back," and headed back into the forest in the direction from which they had just emerged.

"What happened to staying together?" he called after her. Shaking his head, he began unpacking the anomaly detectors. Strategically placing them around their camp, he ran the trip wires and then started the fire. He was getting better at starting a fire now. It was soon blazing and crackling.

Abby soon returned to camp with an arm load of pinecones. "Thought we should have a movie night," she said with a grin "and I've brought the popcorn."

"Ready to roast pinecones," agreed Connor.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Connor was sitting, leaning back against the base of the tree. Abby reclined with her head against his chest, sighing contentedly. She was picking the last of the pine nuts out and intermittently handing one to Connor and then eating one herself.

"I'm really glad we've got the fire," Abby said sleepily "have to thank Becker for putting flint in the backpacks."

"Yeah," agreed Connor "it's great for cooking… warmth… ambience…"

Abby's eyebrows rose at his last word. Ambience, she thought. "I meant," began Abby "for keeping the creatures away… for keeping that titanosaur and whatever was following it away." She shuddered.

"Oh Abby," Connor replied "I doubt this little fire would keep something as big as a titanosaur away… oomph." He gasped for air as Abby elbowed herself into a sitting position. She turned to look at him.

"What do you mean," she demanded "everyone knows that fire scares animals…"

"Everyone hasn't been born yet," he remarked.

"What do you mean?" she repeated.

"Most animals in our time fear fire because it is associated with humans, and humans are dangerous," he explained. "Here and now, fire is something that might occur after a lightening strike… something as small as this campfire would probably not even be noticed by a titanosaur."

"The titanosaur wouldn't notice a fire," Abby asked incredulously.

Connor snorted as he tossed another branch on the fire. "If the whole forest were on fire… maybe… but really, I doubt a creature that size would notice anything smaller than a G Rex or another titanosaur."

He looked at her, and finally seemed to realize her dismay at his words. "Of course, the smoke will mask our smell from anything that hunts by scent."

"That won't save us from getting stepped on," she replied.

"Abby," he grinned "we would hear the titanosaur coming long before we got stepped on."

She nodded in agreement, remembering the sound of its slow lumbering tread.

"And the G Rex," she asked. "that hunted by detecting motion…"

"Yeah" Connor agreed "so we just need to huddle together."

Hmmph. Abby leaned back against Connor's chest again. Looking up, she could see the moon and stars. They hadn't seen the moon and stars since they moved into their second camp. The forest growth was thicker there, bright sunlight made its way through the branches, but not too much else.

Tonight was just beautiful, and Abby decided she couldn't worry about titanosaurs or G Rex or whatever else might be lurking out in the darkness. Tonight, she was going to concentrate on the man right here with her, right now.

"Connor," she said turning her body to face him.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x


	11. Creatures

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The next morning, Abby awoke alone on her silvery blanket.

Connor's blanket was wrapped around her snuggly; it rustled slightly as she stretched beneath it. She blinked in the dim light. A faint pink glow was spreading a thin line of light across the horizon in front of her. She heard Connor's anomaly detector rattle to the left of her. She slowly turned her head to see what was coming over the trip wire. A slow moving rounded shape appeared in front of her. At her movement, it turned in her direction.

Abby reacted quickly with a scissor kick, knocking the creature off its feet.

"Ow!" exclaimed Connor as he rolled on the ground in pain. "Abby, what did you do that for?"

"Connor?"

"Well yeah," he replied as he sat up rubbing his bare thigh muscle. "Watch where you're kicking! A little higher and…" He shuddered.

"Sorry," Abby said apologetically, "thought you were a creature… hulking around, bent over like that…"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Abby untied the rest of the anomaly detectors and carefully rewound the string from the trip wires, while Connor shook out his clothes and dressed. Wrapping his ankle tightly, she tried to be as gentle as she could, but pushing his boot on required some force.

She was panting as his foot finally slid down into the sole of the boot. Abby heard Connor release the breath he had been holding as he started to tie the laces. She looked up at his face, a line of perspiration was trailing down the side of his brow. She reached up to wipe it away, cupping the side of his face with her hand.

"Connor," she whispered "your ankle's swelling again. We should really go back to our camp, yeah."

"Abby," he replied "we're so close. We need to get the anomaly opening device."

"Right," she said as she shook out her garments and started putting them on. She didn't think the old anomaly opening device was ever going to work again, but if Connor wanted to do this…

"Let's go."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

An early morning mist hugged the open ground in front of them. No creatures could be seen or heard.

"I'll just lead for a bit," she told Connor "you step where I step, so you don't trip." Behind her, she could hear Connor grumbling, something about together.

Abby stepped forward into the open area.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Down one hill and up another, around a small stand of conifers. They were back to where they had started in the cretaceous by midmorning. The skull of a raptor and scattered skeletal remains convinced Abby they had found the right tree.

"Are you sure this is the right tree?" whispered Connor "I remember lots of raptors…"

"Yeah," Abby replied quietly "this is the right tree. Guess the other raptors woke up and ate the one you knocked out."

"But there could be loads of raptor skulls…" objected Connor.

"Could be," Abby agreed, "but I'll bet this is the only stun grenade casing around." She held up the twisted piece of metal

"Brilliant!" exclaimed Connor. "Now let's find the anomaly opening device and my cell phone."

It was just a few minutes before they found the anomaly opening device. Abby picked it up, and shook it, hoping for a sign of light. Nothing. With a sigh, she handed it to Connor who carefully tucked it away into an inner pocket of his backpack.

They both continued searching, but there was no sign of Connor's cell phone. After about a half hour, Abby was growing impatient.

"Connor," she hissed "I really don't remember seeing you with your cell phone since we left home."

"I'm sure I had it in me pocket…" he started.

"You can tear my cell phone to pieces," Abby offered "but let's start back now, we can probably get past both of the open areas today if we start now."

"Well," he spluttered "I really wanted both sets of the cell phone parts…"

"Connor," Abby glared.

"But I guess just one will do," he sighed. They turned and began to retrace their steps.

They had both agreed to try to follow Danny's anomaly or go through any other anomaly, but they wouldn't go through the one that led back to the future, back to the future predators.

The cretaceous was safer than that future.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

They were making surprisingly good time on their journey back. As the sun shone directly overhead, they paused at the remnants of the aerie for a break and to eat some of the maybe carrots. The maybe carrots were the only roots they had found so far that they could tolerate eating raw.

"Connor," asked Abby in between bites of maybe carrot, "how's your ankle?"

"Hmm?" he replied. He had the anomaly opening device in his hands, twisting and turning it over as he inspected it. His maybe carrot lay untouched on the open backpack beside him.

"Connor," said Abby with a small smirk, handing him the maybe carrot. "Eat now, yeah. This gadget can wait till we get back to our camp."

"Right," he agreed tucking the device carefully back inside his backpack. He took a crunchy bite of the root vegetable, and grabbed his staff, starting to stand up again.

A heavy lumbering footstep sounded in the distance.

Connor looked at Abby in excitement. "It's coming, in daylight," he said "we can see what it is now."

Abby looked appalled. She didn't want to see whatever dangerous creature was coming towards them, and she certainly didn't want to see whatever was following it.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

They had compromised. Leaving the aerie, they moved across the remaining open space to the side of forest where the trail Abby had marked led in the direction of their camp. They would stay there long enough to catch a sight of the creature, and then start back towards their camp.

Connor kept craning his head out from behind the tree, searching for the source of the loud, thunderous footsteps. Abby kept pulling his shirt and jacket, trying to draw him back to the shelter of the large trunk.

"Oh, you beauty," whispered Connor in delight. Abby snorted in disbelief at his words, sometimes she thought he sounded just like Cutter. "The drawings don't do you justice," he continued. He was talking to the dinosaur Abby noted, not her.

"What drawings?" asked Abby.

"Artists… they try to render pictures of the creatures… for museums, dioramas…" Connor breathed, "but they never got it right…"

Curiosity was too much for Abby, she stepped forward beside Connor.

"Wow," she said at the sight that greeted her.

The huge sauropod shone in the bright sunlight, dark blue scales glistened from its head, along the length of its neck and down across its back and trailing down its tail. Fainter blue scales covered the huge creature's sides, fading to a tawny colored underbelly. "Its markings remind me of birds…"

"Well, birds are considered the living dinosaurs…" Connor started. He stopped speaking as the Argentinosaurus swished its heavy tail from one side to another. Trees along the creatures path broke and crashed to the ground. "What's that now…" He stepped forward, away from the trunk of the tree.

"Connor," called Abby, grabbing the waist of his pants, trying to pull him back into the relative safety of the tree line.

"But Abby," he said "you've got to see this."

The titanosaur in front of them bit the top off a tree and stepped forward. As its tail moved, Abby caught a glimpse of some smaller creatures swarming beside and behind it. Well, thought Abby, smaller in relation to the hungry creature eating an entire forest.

"What are they?"

"Looking at the head… maybe Pachycephalosaurus," answered Connor. He took another step forward.

"Connor!"

"You know," he added "like Princess… big head… bony..."

At the mention of the dracorex residing in the menagerie back home, Abby looked up in surprise. "What?"

"Pachycephalosaurus…some scientists speculate that the dracorex might be a juvenile pachycephalosaurus," Connor replied taking yet another step forward. He was completely out from under the shelter of the trees branches, standing in the bright sun, staring at the scene below in total awe.

"Well," hissed Abby, trying to pull him back into the shadows of the tree "some scientists are wrong."

Connor turned to look at Abby in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"Princess is a fully grown female dracorex," Abby answered "she was building a nest in the menagerie when we left home."

"Really," grinned Connor. "Cool."

A squawking sound came from the group of pachycephalosaurus. Connor stepped forward once again.

One of the hard headed creatures reared back and charged, head butting into the flank of the Argentinosaurus rear leg. The huge sauropod raised its head up and trumpeted a sound of annoyance. It swished its heavy tail like a horse swatting at flies, sending several of the smaller dinosaurs flying across the swath of open terrain.

One of the pachycephalosaurus landed between the remains of the aerie and where Connor and Abby were standing.

"Well, those scientists… they were right about pachycephalosaurus attacking by butting creatures with its head…" chuckled Connor.

"Did they say what it ate?" asked Abby as she watched the creature shaking itself and trying to rise to its feet.

"Some say maybe herbivore or maybe omnivore…"

"Looking at those teeth," Abby whispered "I'm thinking maybe carnivore." Connor turned to look at the creature that was closest to them, he gulped.

"Time to go," said Abby moving towards the tree line.

"Yeah," agreed Connor. He stepped after her, bringing his boot down on a broken branch. The stick snapped. The creature turned its heavy head to look in their direction.

"Run Abby!"

"No, Connor we're staying together!"

"Now?" he squawked in amazement, "Now you want to stay together?"

"I won't leave you!"

"Right then," said Connor, adding "sorry" as he shoved her down flat on the ground and turned to face the pachycephalosaurus that was running towards them, bony head down, preparing to ram them. He raised his stick high, and bent down into a crouch.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Abby felt the movement in the air as the creature passed over her. She rose quickly to her knees, spitting out the grass and dirt from her mouth, turning to look for Connor. The creature was at the base of the tree, its head moving from side to side, Connor's feet sticking out beneath it, kicking weakly.

"Connor!"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x


	12. Home?

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"Connor!" Abby cried again.

She watched his legs kicking from beneath the body of the creature, as the huge head rolled from side to side. Redness was seeping out, pooling beside the two, spreading across the ground. She reached for one of the sticks lying on the ground, grasped it and stood up. She moved towards the creature, a grim look on her face.

She was going to kill that thing, or die trying.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

As she stepped closer to the tree and the bodies piled beneath it, Abby began to realize exactly how much bigger the pachycephalosaurus was than a human being. Connor's feet were sticking out from beneath the creature's body, one foot on either side of where the tail began to extend outward. She stepped closer, her boots sinking once again into the soft dirt beneath the shade of the tree.

Following the line of the creature's body Abby thought Connor's body must be pinned entirely by this creature's torso. The head of the pachycephalosaurus flopped to the side. Raising her stick, Abby stepped closer, and then stopped in puzzlement.

The creature's eyes were glazed, clearly it was dead. The head and neck extended nearly a meter past the creature's body. What was making it move?

The head of the pachycephalosaurus flopped again. Abby heard a muffled sound.

"Connor!"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

She knelt beside the torso of the pachycephalosaurus, using her stick to prop up the creature's front leg. Beneath the body of the pachycephalosaurus, Connor lay gasping. He had landed between the trees thick roots; they extended up and out of the ground. Connor's stick had caught the creature in its throat. The forward momentum of the creatures charge had dragged the point down into its body, down the length of its torso. The momentum had continued carrying both the creature and Connor to the base of the tree. The roots were the only thing keeping the full weight of the pachycephalosaurus from entirely crushing him.

"Can't breathe."

The eviscerated creature's body was pinning him down, he was completely covered in gore, but he was alive. And for Abby Maitland, that was enough.

"I'll get more sticks," she said. Her trembling lips turned up in a smile.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

After propping up several sticks on the side of the dead pachycephalosaurus's body, there was enough space for Connor to wriggle free. He crawled out from beneath the dinosaur, groaning and retching.

"Ugh," he gasped "that's horrible."

"Connor," said Abby "hold still and close your eyes."

"What?"

"Just do it," she ordered "quickly now."

"But, but…" he began.

"And close your mouth too," she hissed.

The last of the precious water from their canteen was soon splashing on his face, a soft cloth wiping the creature's blood and viscera from his eyes, nose and mouth. When he started to cough, Abby quit pouring the water. She continued to wipe his face for a few moments longer.

"Okay, now," she directed "you can open your eyes."

"Abby," he said worriedly looking at the soft cloth in her hands "your blouse is all covered in blood. We've got to get you cleaned up."

"Yeah Conn," she chuckled standing there in her camisole "we've got to get us both cleaned up."

Connor's eyes widened. She turned to see what he was looking at. While most of the pachycephalosaurus were still harassing the Argentinosaurus, a couple of the creatures appeared to have finally noticed the scent of blood. They were slowly moving across the swath of open space towards the tree where they were standing.

"We should get going, yeah."

"Yeah."

Abby reached to give Connor a hand up, but he was back on his knees reaching under the dead creature. He pulled out the long pointed stick, used it to brace himself, then rose to stand beside her. She looked from him to the stick and back again.

"What," he asked. She raised her eyebrows. "It's me lucky stick," he replied to her unspoken question "it's the one I speared the fish with."

Yeah, she thought. It was a lucky stick. Abby reached down to grab her backpack and jacket off the ground, then she reached her arm around Connor's waist.

"Lean on me," she whispered. "We need to get moving, quickly now."

As Abby and Connor moved deeper into the forest, they heard the snarls of the two pachycephalosaurus. They were tearing into the body of the dead pachycephalosaurus, eating hungrily.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

They made better time moving down the hill than they had on the way up previously. Abby and Connor reached the edge of the tree line by mid-afternoon. Abby could tell that Connor was tiring quickly, but the discomfort of being covered in a hot, sticky, smelly mess was urging him on.

They crossed the open space back to their side of the forest, and followed the tree line on until they came to the tree Abby had notched. Connor was walking slower with every step.

"Connor," Abby asked "it'll be darker when we go back into the forest, do you want to stay at our old campsite tonight? Or head on home now?"

He slapped at an insect on his neck. "Abby," he said miserably "I just want to go straight to the river and jump in. The bugs are driving me crazy."

Abby nodded sympathetically. The insects had been swarming Connor for the past half hour or so, occasionally nipping at her, but for the most part they were attracted to Connor and the mess he was covered in.

"Yeah Connor," she replied "we'll go to the river, but up by the waterfall… where it's rocky."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The sun had set and they had moved down to the edge of the river, following that trail along its sandy banks in the faint light of the moon instead of travelling on the more sheltered trail they usually favored. It was still hard to see. They were starting to think they might actually make it to the waterfall without any further incident when they heard the barking call of a raptor. Another raptor called in response.

Abby and Connor looked at each other.

"I've got an idea," said Connor urging her forward "we just need to make it to the loo."

By the time they reached the gnarled old tree stump, there were at least four raptors barking, hunting them.

"Careful Abby," Connor called, "stay to the rocks."

"Yeah Connor,' she called back "you too, and don't slip." She began crossing the river, carefully jumping from rock to rock. They were almost to the other side of the river when the raptors reached the bank beside the loo.

"Now Connor," Abby called anxiously. She stepped off the last rock in the river, onto the river bank.

"Keep your mouth open," he shouted as he threw the last stun grenade at the ravenous creatures. As the explosion echoed in the night air, Abby watched Connor sway on the slippery rock he was standing on. She held her breath, held both of her hands out to either side as if that would help Connor balance. Please, she thought, just don't fall in.

The noise reverberated in the darkness, and Connor balanced, then jumped to the river bank beside her. He fell in a heap, but thankfully he was on dry land. In midstream and among the shallows of the other side of the river bank, claws were coming up out of the muddy depths, grabbing the raptors and dragging them below the surface of the water. Abby shivered.

Connor arose from the ground beside her and looked across the river.

"I think the loo's closed for repairs now."

"Hmmph," Abby snorted "Yeah."

Abby put her arm around his waist and started heading him upstream along the river bank. Soon they were at the waterfall, stripping off their filthy clothes, doing laundry and bathing in the shallow rocky pools of water beneath the moonlight.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

They had stayed the night at the waterfall, not wanting to risk travelling the trails through the woods back to their camp again in the darkness. Abby had kept watch, insisting that Connor try to get some rest. She hadn't liked the sound he had made when he was taking off his boots, unwrapping his ankle.

As the morning dawned, she looked at his body lying on the silvery blanket just steps away from the rivers edge. Bruises could be seen now in the daylight. A lot of bruises, but it could have been so much worse she thought. Once again, Abby wished she had some painkillers. She reached a small hand out to touch his shoulder.

"Connor," she whispered, "sun's coming up. We should get back to camp now, yeah."

He gave an involuntary groan as he woke. Brown eyes blinked, looking up at her tenderly. "Yeah," he said "let's go home."

Home thought Abby, here in the cretaceous. How weird is that?

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x


	13. Late

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It was three weeks since Abby and Connor had returned from their journey.

After their night at the waterfall, they had returned to their home camp and set up the anomaly detectors, the trip wires, started the fire. They settled in again. With a new gadget to take apart, Connor had been content to sit more, keep his foot elevated when she reminded him, and actually give his body some time to heal.

Abby looked at his body as he was dressing in the early morning semi-darkness. The flames from their campfire showed his latest bruises were finally starting to fade. He was moving better too, she thought. His stride seemed a little easier, with quicker steps. It wouldn't be long, before he was able to run again.

He bent down beside her, gave her a quick kiss before picking up his lucky stick and heading towards the fishing hole.

"Back soon," he called with a grin.

She leaned back against the silvery blanket, stretching out tiredly. She really should quit worrying she thought. Connor's naturally sunny disposition helped him bounce back from almost any disappointment. He seemed to be holding up better.

Abby remembered his chagrin when he first took the old anomaly opening device out of his backpack. The glass view screen was cracked; most likely shattered when the pachycephalosaurus had crash landed on Connor. But he had determinedly set about to figure out the device. He had spent a part of every day for the last three weeks, tinkering, taking apart the gadget and reassembling it multiple times. Yesterday, he had also taken apart her cell phone, tried to wire the tiny battery into the old anomaly opening device. It might have been their imagination, but it sounded for a moment as if their low tech anomaly detectors were rattling a little louder than they did when the wind gusted through their camp. However, the gadget's view screen remained dark. There was nothing to see, and nowhere to go. A moment later the rattling keys and fork in their detectors had stilled.

Connor had looked crestfallen, but soon was chattering away about plans for another attempt. Abby just smiled and nodded her head, trying very hard not to say anything to discourage him. Most of all, she was trying not to let him know how very worried she was.

She was late.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Connor was shaking her awake. "Abby, Abby…" he called to her "you let the fire go out."

She opened her eyes groggily; saw the concern in his eyes. "What?" she asked sleepily.

"Are you all right?"

"Yeah Connor," she said as she felt the familiar cramping pain. "I'm fine, just need to go wash up…"

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It wasn't until later that day, near dinner time when Connor was peeling the maybe turnips that he spoke about it.

"You were late," he said quietly.

She looked at him, startled. She hadn't realized that he had noticed.

"Yeah Conn," she said.

"We were careful," he continued. "Used protection…"

"Connor," she interrupted "it's fine. I'm not pregnant. Women can be late for all sorts of reasons…"

"Yeah," he replied questioningly "like what?"

"Like anything," she said in exasperation, "like stress… not getting enough sleep… a change in diet…"

He snorted, interrupting her words. "Like living in the cretaceous?" he asked.

"Yeah Conn," she agreed "Like living in the cretaceous."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x


	14. A Few Nights Later

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A few nights later, Abby kissed Connor awake. "Your turn for watch," she said. He moved to get up, but she leaned into him, kissing him slowly, opening her lips to thrust her tongue out.

She met an unexpected resistance. Connor's mouth was closed. She looked at him in confusion as he sat up straight.

"Abby," he began "we don't have to do this."

"What?"

In the light of the campfire, Abby could see his skin flush. "You know," he said.

"You don't want to?" she asked.

"No, of course I want…" If anything Connor was flushing an even brighter shade of red as her gaze travelled across his body. She smirked, she could tell he most definitely wanted to.

"It's just…" he started stammering "abstinence… it's the best form of birth control…"

"Connor," Abby said holding up the small foil wrapped packet, "we've got lots of protection. It'd be a shame to let all these condoms go to waste, now. Yeah?"

"Want to protect you," he continued miserably "there are no hospitals out here."

"Connor, I'm not pregnant!" she exclaimed in frustration "the only thing I need to be protected from is creatures trying to eat me!"

They looked at each other for a moment.

"I can do the action stuff you know, but really I'm rubbish at fighting," began Connor "don't know how..."

"I can teach you," Abby offered softly "you know… kickboxing… some defensive moves…"

"I just want you to be safe," he said.

They looked at each other for another moment. Both Abby and Connor knew that neither of them was ever really going to be safe, certainly not as long as they remained in the cretaceous. And truthfully, when was anyone, anywhere, anytime ever really safe?

Abby broke the silence first.

"If you really want to protect me, then hold me Connor," she whispered as she leaned forward to kiss him once again. Some days she thought Connor was the only thing keeping her human in this awful place.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x


	15. Six Weeks Later

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Six weeks later Abby was worrying again.

She was late, even later than she had been for her last cycle. She knew that she and Connor had been careful, but she also knew accidents happened. She had no symptoms, so she really didn't think she was pregnant. At least, she really hoped she wasn't pregnant.

Abby added the maybe onion to the pot stewing on the fire. Connor entered their camp just then carrying a fish. He had been spending more of his time trying to spear one of the wily creatures lately. Connor had tucked the parts and pieces of the anomaly opening device carefully away in his backpack several weeks ago with a sigh and a comment about not enough power. Since then, almost every waking moment found him at the river. They had tried hunting some of the smaller creatures, but the one time they had killed one and roasted it they had both become ill from the meat. Finding eggs proved far more dangerous than trying to hunt the creatures. The creatures were very protective of their nests.

She smiled up at Connor as he sat down beside her. "Oh! Good one," she said appreciatively. Her mouth was already beginning to water at the thought of fish with their dinner.

He smiled a little at her, but didn't say anything. He had already cleaned the fish at the riverside Abby noted, watching as he chopped the fish into smaller pieces and set them on the flattened metal stun grenade casings they used to roast meat.

"The veggies will be done soon," Abby commented as the aroma of roasting fish began to fill their camp.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Abby readied the thin metal camp dishes. Taking the knife, she speared vegetables and chunks of fish placing them on the plates. She set a plate down in front of Connor.

"Wait Abby," said Connor quietly. Abby watched as he switched their plates.

"What did you do that for?"

"I've told you before, you need to eat more," he responded quietly.

"And I've told you the same," she replied in exasperation. She followed his gaze as it travelled from one plate to the other. The differences in the amount of food she had placed on his plate, and the smaller amount she had placed on her plate were obvious. He raised his eyebrows.

"You're bigger than I am," she hissed "you need more food."

He reached for her hand, held it up between them. Abby's fingernail polish was long gone, the once beautifully manicured hand was scratched, nails broken to the quick.

"There was a girl, back in school," Connor began "she was anorexic, her fingernails were sort of blue..."

"And what of it," asked Abby, snatching her hand back.

He swallowed. "Your nails aren't blue, they still look pinkish," he swallowed again, "so you're probably pregnant…"

"I am not pregnant!" she shouted, "And even if I were, it would be no concern of yours. I can take care of myself!"

Connor's eyes blinked, he looked a little stunned at her vehement outburst. It was a moment before he spoke.

"It is a concern to me," he said quietly, "I'd love to be married, having a baby with you…"

At her glare, his voice stumbled, then he went on hurriedly, "But only if we both wanted a baby I mean… and not here of course… not in the cretaceous… "

"What ever made you think I wanted to get married?" she asked him icily.

They stared at each other. Abby could see that her words had hurt him. She hadn't meant to hurt him, but she had done it again all the same.

"I am not pregnant," she repeated quietly, "and I'm not anorexic. I just a little off schedule is all."

"Something's wrong," said Connor, his jaw was tight as he spoke again "you need to eat more."

"We both need to eat more Connor," replied Abby shortly "we've both lost weight these past three months." She picked up a spoon and scooped a bite of food into her mouth. She chewed it quickly and swallowed.

"There, are you happy now?" she asked. "Now eat your dinner before it gets cold."

"Not until I see you've eaten everything on your plate," he replied.

Abby's blue eyes blinked at his tone.

"Now that's just childish," she said.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Two days later, her cycle started and proved Abby was right. She wasn't pregnant.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

It took nearly another two weeks though for Abby to convince Connor again that the condoms really were enough protection.


	16. Unbelievable

**Disclaimer: Primeval does not belong to me, this is fan fiction, not for profit.**

**Any references to people, places, businesses etc is entirely fictitious.**

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Nearly nine months later they were delivered back to the twenty-first century, alive and unharmed. Unbelievable.

They'd safely survived a year in the cretaceous, a rampaging spinosaurus and London rush hour traffic to arrive at a new ARC. Less than an hour later, they were fired.

All their struggles to survive and make it home again, hadn't quite let them imagine this. It certainly didn't feel like a warm welcome home. It felt even less welcoming when they were told that before they could leave the building, Abby and Connor had to have a decontamination bath and a physical exam.

"Make sure you didn't bring back anything contagious… you know," said the medical technician as he jabbed a needle in her arm to draw blood.

The doctor called her into the examining room, while the medical technician turned to Connor.

"Ow!" protested Connor "watch where you're poking that thing."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Abby told the doctor some of what happened during their time in the cretaceous.

She had really been very lucky, he told her, no major injuries, exhaustion was obvious. And she was quite a bit underweight he said. Eat right, take your vitamins he mumbled as he nodded and jotted down notes on the file in front of him. When she asked him about her cycle, he stuttered… not really his area of expertise… he didn't know. She should discuss this further with her gynecologist. Abby nodded, trying not to let this strange man see how absolutely not reassuring he had been.

When she came out of the examining room, she found Connor leaning against the hallway wall with his eyes closed. He almost looked like he was asleep. His eyes opened at the sound of her step. He looked at her anxiously, an unspoken question in his eyes.

Abby nodded briefly, to let him know she was all right. But then she turned her gaze to the memorial plaque on the wall beside him. Abby started to read the names, avoiding Connor's eyes, not wanting to say anything more, not here, not now, not in public. The doctor called Connor into the examining room.

Abby knew from what had been said already that Sarah was no longer here. She continued reading the names on the plaque while waiting for Connor, hoping that she wouldn't find anyone else she knew listed there. The plaque listed the names of soldiers, Becker's men and women she realized. The first tears started when she found the name of Corporal Harold J. Smathers, more tears came as she found other names she recognized. Samuel T. Smythe, Jacob L. Brewster, William S. Morgan, Sophie R. Anders, William T. Peters… the names went on and on. Her hand came to her mouth as she tried to stifle the sounds of her sobs.

The examination room door opened and Connor was by her side, holding her close against his chest. His arms wrapped around her tightly. He whispered words of consolation in her ears.

"Connor," she cried softly "they're all dead because of us."

Lester had heard her words as he came up the hall towards them. He was carrying a set of keys.

"No," he said to the young pair standing so dejectedly in front of him "they're dead because a madwoman tried to destroy the world. If anything, you should remember the rest of us are all alive because of you two and Danny."

Lester looked a little uncomfortable, emotional speeches weren't his style, but some things just had to be said. He held out the keys.

"For the company flat," he continued gruffly "when you're done here, Becker will drive you over. Get a good night's sleep won't you."

Abby nodded, and then she asked the same question she asked so long ago when they had returned to the ARC from the not so safe house and the terror birds, "Did you miss us?"

"Don't be ridiculous!"

The words were the same, and Abby thought as she looked at Lester, his eyes perhaps a little damp, his chin perhaps trembling just a bit, that the words were just as ridiculous now as they were then.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A/N - If you wish to read a story about Lester and Becker while Abby and Connor were in the cretaceous, please see companion story Weirdness in London.


End file.
